It varies, working from home can be a horrible isolating trap and simultaneously much more productive and appealing.
Especially in the winter months, if your work day is now at your home with no intrinsic reason to go anywhere else, you wake up in darkness and first leave the house in darkness, meanwhile the agency you'd otherwise have is impeded by people watching your Slack status wondering where you are, it's not exactly ideal. With no physical difference between work and home, you and up basically always being at home, which can be dreadful at times.
I’m not sure how leaving home before sunrise then arriving home after sunset, to go spend all your daylight hours in an office, is any better. At least every room in my house has ample natural light…
That's not great 100% of the time either, but a mix is what I've found to be a bit better for mental health.
> At least every room in my house has ample natural light…
Must be nice, I live in a basement. A place where every room, presumably more than one of them, has ample natural light, costs a minimum of a million dollars, but I still prefer my city to one who's only value proposition is ample sunlight and cheap houses.
Hybrid: All the focus of at home work coupled with a few days talking smack around the office cooler . . .
"The most important finding of the study is that of hybrid work," Jan Kabatek, a researcher at the University of Melbourne and co-author of the study, told the ABC.
"The biggest gains for women were found for work from home arrangements, which involved the majority of days spent at home, but retaining at least one or two days of work from the office or on-site.
Either way, that's perfectly fine, it's not for me, but I wasn't arguing against it. I'm quite happy in the city near the mountains, I wouldn't even entertain moving 3 blocks deeper into the suburbs.
My preference is 3 days in the office, I find anything less than that and I struggle mentally. My home starts to feel like a prison and I lose connection with people.
I really value human connection and I just don’t get the same thing online.
I relate to that and I think the real reason some people struggle to believe that is because not everyone has a great work environment at work. I have one, I actually look forward to coming to the office sometimes.
I was pondering this, because my team is very small, so I don't get to interact with all that many people at the office (the people I interact with will 90% of the time be elsewhere anyway).
But apart from that it seems like the worst of both worlds? You still have to commute there, you can't reasonably expect to have peace and quiet since it's mostly open space (or if it's a closed office, how's that better than staying home?), and you don't even get to see your colleagues.
In my case, what I hate with the office is the commute and the random noise people make (phone calls, chats, whatever). I rather like my colleagues, so it's not like I want to avoid those people specifically.
Not the previous commenter, but co-working spaces are few and far between in most of the world, plus they can be expensive if the employee is the one paying.
As for the coworkers not knowing your boss thing, I agree, although in a more positive framing – it can be helpful to have a work social group that isn't in your reporting chain. You can get this at many medium sized and up companies.
Or better yet, a therapist. Work is literally THE worst place to make human connections because it is a business first and foremost (yes, go ahead and post how it’s not true – it won’t change a thing).
> Work is literally THE worst place to make human connections
I don't necessarily disagree, but I make a slightly different argument, in that, humans will make human connections, whether they like it or not, and the most typical human experience is to make stronger and stronger connections with people you see regularly. Furthermore, depending on the company, there's the desire to be a part of something bigger, there's social conditioning setting in to prove yourself among your peers, there's the desire to not appear like you're lazy.
Where I think you'll agree is that your company will 100% exploit these human aspects of you to get a better margin on the value of your labor vs the compensation they pay you.
Let me clarify my point: in the absence of life outside of work, work is the worst place to make connections. If you treat work as “just” a complementary source of connections, then it is fine. But if it’s your only source, then you need to get of this situation asap.
When I moved, I gave up a 7km (4 miles) bike commute along a river and switched to WFH. Definitely missed that.
I also feel disconnected from work when WFH, like I don't care about the company at all. The obvious problem is that it made me think the time spent working was quite a waste.
I didn't take as many and as socialable breaks.
When I was unproductive, I felt internal psychological pressure to work longer. Now in-office, I clock my hours and am free.
My life falls apart when I do not have the routine of getting up and going to work and talking to people. But I enjoy working from home because I feel like I can do less work (even during work hours) and more things I enjoy.
I think you're being a bit reductive there. For one, the article indicates the greatest benefits are from a hybrid environments where some time is spent in the office.
Is there anyone having a worse experience working from home? I'm curious to hear some stories.